At What Price
by Spiderman1033
Summary: An intruder is on their way to kill Arthur. So nothing new for Merlin, but to save Arthur what will it cost.
1. Chapter 1

_In a land of myth and a time of magic the destiny of a great kingdom_

_Rests on the shoulders of a young boy. His name_

_Merlin._

It was another night in the Royal Castle, it was a quiet night while everyone was asleep dreaming sweet dreams. Everyone was fast asleep after a very eventful feast that night. So no one heard the bandit coming in to the castle with a mission to kill the King of Camelot… Arthur Pendragon.

Merlin tossed and turned in his bed hoping he could just fall asleep. He was extremely tired but he couldn't seem to fall asleep. There was this feeling in his gut that something was going to happen but he couldn't pinpoint what it was so he kept tossing and turning in his bed hoping it was nothing and he would just fall asleep. Sadly that didn't happen, so he decided he would get dressed and take a walk through the castle to make sure everything was ok. He first went by King Arthur and now Queen Guinevere's chambers to make sure they were alright and didn't need anything.

Before he could even open the door he felt dizzy and his vision blurred. Powerful magic was in Camelot and it was close and by close it was down the hallway. Merlin saw a dark figure making its way down the hallway. He hurried and opened the door and hurried to wake the King. Merlin didn't want to risk exposing his magic if he didn't have to, and if he didn't and this new magical bandit defeated him before he could tell Arthur then the bandit could kill Arthur before Arthur could even open his eyes to see what was coming.

He hurried to the King and Queen's bedside to wake them up but they were already awake from the sound of the door opened. Arthur already had his sword in hand thinking there was an intruder in his chambers. Before Arthur could yell at Merlin for waking them up by barging into their room Merlin started to quickly inform them of what is happening.

"Arthur there is an intruder on his way to you right now and I think he has magic. He will be here any second."

He was right, the intruder walked in as soon as Merlin finished his sentenced.

"Gwen.. Merlin, stay behind me." Arthur told his wife and servent.

Merlin grabbed Gwen and got her and got behind Arthur like they were told and made sure that he was in front of Gwen to protect her.

"Whoever you think you are leave while you can. By walking in here you have threatened the lives of my wife, friend, and the life of myself and I will not have that." Arthur warned the intruder.

The intruder just stood there and smiled while he took out a small dagger. Then he attacked. Arthur's blade crashed into the intruder's dagger and they each got in a few blows before the intruder had enough of their fight and knocked Arthur backwards with his magic. Arthur was to dazed to get up. The intruder started towards Arthur to finish his mission to kill him.

Merlin saw Arthur on the ground and the intruder began to get closer to strike him. He was expecting Arthur to get up and take him down like it was nothing but that wasn't going to happen. Merlin didn't even hesitate he ran in front of Arthur before the intruder could strike him. That gave Arthur a distraction to take down the intruder and restrain him so when the guards got there then he will be ready to take to the dungeon and to be questioned.

As soon as Arthur restrained the intruder Gwen ran into his arms making sure he was okay.

"Arthur are you hurt? Are you alright?" Gwen asked

"Gwen I'm fine we are all ok, we are safe now. And now that we are safe I get to yell at my favorite idiot." Arthur told Gwen

Arthur turned around expecting to see Merlin in front of him ready to argue with him, but instead Merlin was bent over leaning against the wall for support.

"Merlin? Are you alright?" Arthur asked nervously

What Arthur saw next made Arthur more scared and worried than he has ever been in his life. Merlin moved his hand away from his stomach, there was blood on his hand and as he looked down he noticed there was a pool of blood where Merlin stood. Arthur rushed to his side and removed his other hand that was covering his stomach. There was a knife wound bleeding profoundly. Arthur knew no one could survive such a bad injury.

"Arthur we have to get him to Gaius!" Gwen said fearfully

"Gwen I need someone to stay with our uninvited guest here until the guards show up. He is unconscious so he can't hurt you. Could you stay with him? I need to get Merlin to Gaius but I cant have him unwatched."

"Of course and Arthur… save him"

Arthur gave her a nod and went to Merlin and picked him up bridal style which Merlin would yell at him later for. As soon as he picked Merlin up he groaned in pain and Arthur muttered an apology to him and headed to the physician, Gauis's chambers.

Gaius woke up to the sound of someone knocking on the door. Before he could even say come in the door flew wide open and he saw what he hoped he would never see: Arthur carrying an unconscious bleeding Merlin. Out of habit Gaius hurried over to Arthur and helped him carry Merlin to the small bed.

" What on earth happened!? I didn't even know he left the chambers!" Gaius asked while looking at the cause of all the blood that was leaving Merlin's body.

There was so much blood, the wound was deep. So that meant he had to work fast if Merlin wanted to live.

"Merlin came into my chambers saying there was an intruder in the castle on his way to kill me. But by the time Merlin told me that he was already there. We fought and he was so close to killing me until Merlin got in front of the blade. He saved my life." Arthur told Gaius.

" Of course he did," Gaius muttered. " I need you to keep pressure on his wound while I gather my supplies. The wound is deep and needs cleaning before I can start closing it up."

Arthur gave Gaius a nod and did as he was told. As soon as he started to apply pressure Merlin started to groan in pain. Gaius came back not even 5 minutes later, supplies in hand.

" Okay, Arthur we need to clean out the wound and it's going to be very painful. Try to keep him as still as possible."

As Gauis cleaned out Merlin's wound his screams could be heard throughout the castle.


	2. Authors note

**This is my very first fanfiction story so if anyone wants to know the rest of the story just comment and i'll publish the rest of the story.** **I am just figuring it out as I go.**


	3. Chapter 2

The castle was silent, the only noise that could be heard was the knights in the dungeons. They were questioning the mysterious intruder that attacked Arthur and stabbed Merlin. The man wouldn't say anything, but he still gave the knights a bad feeling.

"Why did you try to kill the King? Did someone hire you?" Sir Leon questioned the man.

As expected the man didn't say anything. The knights kept trying but didn't get anything from the man, so they kept a very close eye on their prisoner until the King got a chance to question the man.

Gauis finished cleaning out the wound and the wound was now stitched and bandaged, but Merlin lost a lot of blood. Merlin would need a lot of rest to regain his strength.Arthur was very helpful, he helped move Merlin up to his room onto his bed, and was sitting by his bedside watching him rest. He would wake him up in a few hours to give him pain medicine and to check that the bandaging was good, but for now he was watching the boy he called a son rest.

Arthur got up from his seat by Merlin's bed and took a seat across the table from Gauis.

"The knights have been questioning the man that attacked me and Merlin. I am about to head down to the dungeons to question him myself, but when he attacked me, I felt like there was some kind of pressure on me causing me to be weaker. Also when we were fighting on his dagger I saw these weird symbols on it."

Something in his mind clicked, he got up from his seat and got out a book and started flipping through it until he found the page he was looking for.

"Were these the symbols you saw on his dagger?" Gauis asked while showing Arthur a page with bold symbols on it.

"Yes those were the exact symbols on his blade."

" I believe I know who tried to kill you, there is only one man I know who has the dagger you speak of. His name is Gorlois Tor, he is a very angry man. His father would beat him and hit his mother, but his mother was very kind to him. When his father died he thought he would finally get a happy life but when a man came to their home seeking shelter that hope left. Apparently the man had been a sorcerer and Uther found out who he was and killed the man and his mother for helping the man. Since Gorlois was still only a child he showed him mercy. I took the boy in but as he grew older his anger and hatred for Uther grew as well."

"What happened?" Arthur asked eagerly

" When he was about 20 years old he tried to kill your father. He failed but he was never caught. He ran away vowing he would make him pay. I saw him a few years ago he told me of his dagger saying that it would give him an advantage in a fight making him stronger it would also instantly kill the targeted person with just a single touch."

"What do you mean by the targeted person Gauis?"

" The blade was meant to kill the Pendragons. The symbols on the dagger means, THE SHED OF PENDRAGON BLOOD. So if it had touched you or your father it would have killed you, but since it IS a dagger it injured Merlin but not even close to what it would have done to you. We need to destroy it, it's the source of his powers and it is a weapon that can be used against you."

" I guess there isn't much point in questioning him now. I'll see to it personally that the dagger is destroyed. Thank you for telling me about him. This just tells me that my father wasn't always right that I have to learn from his mistakes."

"You are becoming a great king sire, and I don't want to see you back here tonight. After you destroy the dagger get some rest and you can check on him in the morning. I am most certain he won't wake tonight, he'll wake when his body is stronger.You can come by to check on him tomorrow." Gauis told Arthur.

Arthur gave Gauis a nod and left the chambers to destroy the dagger. They melted the dagger into nothing and after it was destroyed he went by the dungeons to talk to the prisoner. He was going to apologize for his father's actions for killing his mother and was going to tell him of his chances are of being sentenced to death. He never got the chance to though. Apparently Gorlois used his jacket to hang himself while the guards were switching so they couldn't stop him. After dealing with ALL of that he finally opened the door to his chambers.

"Arthur! Is Merlin all right!? No one has told me anything." Gwen told Arthur.

" Gwen I am so sorry I should have told you or at least had someone tell you, but Merlin is going to be okay. He is very weak and will require plenty of rest but he will recover from this."

"Oh thank the gods I was so scared we were going to lose him."

" Merlin is strong he wouldn't give up so quickly, he is the bravest man I know… don't tell him I said that he'll never let it go."

Gwen laughed and pulled Arthur into bed and fell asleep in his arms.

When Merlin woke he felt an aching pain in his side. He pulled up his shirt to find that his side was heavily wrapped with bandages. Memories of a sorcerer in the castle and him being stabbed flashed through his brain. Not knowing if Arthur was okay he tried to sit up but it was very hard when you have a stab wound in your side. Gauis must have heard him struggling because next thing he knew he was right next to him pushing him back into bed.

"What do you think you are doing!? Lay back down before you pull your stitches!"

Merlin decided to listen to Gauis and layed back into bed and allowing him to fix his blankets.

"Gaius what happend after I passed out? Is Arthur and Gwen alright?"

"They are both fine, after you passed out Arthur got you back here and we took care of the wound. The sorcerer was known as Gorlois Tor. I've have told of him to you before. His dagger was the source of his power and it was enchanted to kill Uther and Arthur. Arthur destroyed it and apparently while the guards were switching watches he hanged himself in his cell. He most likely knew the dagger was destroyed and he had no chance. That was 3 days ago."

" You mean to tell me that I have been out for 3 DAYS!! That is way to long!" Merlin told Gauis with shock.

" Then I guess you don't want to know how long you have to stay in bed to recover from your wound." Gauis told Merlin while laughing.

"But being in bed is so…. Boring!" Merlin whined.

Gauis just laughed and left Merlin to pout in his room. Everyone was safe. The King was safe and Merlin was going to be okay. He may get bored out of his mind but he'll be okay. His boy was safe.

**THE END**


End file.
